Overview

These flies were formerly included in the non-Australian family Aulacigastridae.

The adults are found mainly in spring and early summer on trunks of smooth-barked Eucalyptus or on foliage of large-leaved monocots, e.g. Alocasia and Musa . The fact that soft, newly emerged adults are often found in Eucalyptus trunks may indicate that the larvae also have an association with these trees. This family are commonly called  Nobody flies.

Description

The main diagnostic features of these very small slender flies include:

Postocellar bristles present and either divergent or parallel; face broadly convex and sclerotised; pedicel of antenna not dorsally slit; apical pair of scutellar bristles erect or almost erect; anepisternum bare; prosternum narrow, without precoxal bridge; base of wing vein C with two dorsal and no ventral costagial bristles; wing cells bm and dm only partly separated; cell cup enclosed; in female, tergite 5 of abdomen much reduced (compared with tergite 4).

Distribution

Neminids have been found in Africa, Madagascar, New Guinea, and Australia. The relatively numerous (11) Australian species live both in the wet tropics and the south of the continent.